“Arr…umph.”
That was all the sound that could be made around the gags the two sailors had stuffed in their mouths, but conversation at the moment wasn’t as important as working the bonds loose on their hands.
When the jib halyard had torn, the two deckhands had cursed, but when the main followed a few minutes later, Pierre and Jean became aware that they had been sabotaged and by whom. It hadn’t taken much time for them to tie Lorelei and Fiona’s hands behind them, shove gags in their mouths, and push them belowdecks while they set out to repair the damage to the sails.
“Uggh.”
“Arr…umph…umph!”Finally! Lorelei had succeeded in getting one of her fingers to loosen the knot on Fiona’s wrists. Having to work back to back and not being able to see what each was doing had made their efforts incredibly slow. Time was of the essence if they were going to try to make any kind of escape before the halyards were repaired. She just prayed all four men would be working on the foredeck and wouldn’t notice as she and Fiona crawled through the stern hatch.
She paused as footsteps approached and a familiar voice spoke.
“Where are the two lasses who were sailing with ye earlier?”
Lorelei spun around, her eyes widening as she looked at Fiona. Alasdair was here!
“Nous ne parlons pas anglais.”
“Fine then.Où sont les dames qui taient étaient sur ce bateau?”
That voice was Gavin’s, and Fiona widened her eyes and looked at Lorelei. Then they both turned and began to work frantically at their bonds.
Pierre switched to English. “I do not know what you are talking about. There are no ladies on board.”
“They were, though,” Gavin said easily. “I believe Captain Taylor invited them for a sail.”
“Captain Taylor is not on board, either,” Jean said.
“Of course he isna,” Alasdair said. “He has ye doing his dirty work.”
“We do not know what you are talking about.”
“If ’tis true, ye willna have any objection to our coming aboard to see for ourselves.”
“You donothave permission.”
“Avex-vous quelque chose à cacher?” Gavin asked.
“We do not have anything to hide,” Pierre said.
“Nae?”
There was a thudding sound and the boat rocked as two pairs of boots hit the deck. Lorelei looked up as scuffling occurred above them and guttural sounds accompanied by heavy smacks of fists hitting flesh began. She began to tug hard at Fiona’s ropes. Alasdair and Gavin were outnumbered two to one. They had to do something. She felt Fiona’s fingers turn as her friend tried to fold them in, making the rope looser.
Somebody’s body hit the deck hard, followed by a heavy groan, but being down below they had no idea who had been thrown down. If it were either Alasdair or Gavin, the odds would now be four to one. With almost superhuman effort, Lorelei pulled on one edge of the rope and, miraculously, felt it give. Fiona must have, too, because her fingers wiggled again. In a moment, her hand was free.
In another minute, Lorelei’s hands were free, too, but before she could pull the gag out of her mouth, Fiona held her finger up.
“Shhh. We have the element of surprise. They doona ken we are loose.”
Lorelei nodded as she pulled out the cloth, then licked her dry lips. “What can we do?” she whispered.
Fiona looked around and then grinned. She went to the table that had charts spread out and picked up an odd-looking instrument. “The pointy end of this sextant will make a painful puncture.”
Lorelei looked around, too, her eyes lighting on a flagstaff that was sticking out of a box of what she thought was boat stuff. Pulling it out, she smiled, too. “I think I might be getting good at using clubs.”
Another hard thump sounded on the deck but this one was farther forward. Fiona crawled up the ladder to the open hatch and peeped around it carefully. She motioned for Lorelei.
Lorelei scrambled up the ladder, crouching behind the raised hatch cover with Fiona. The fighting was taking place on the foredeck now. One of the deckhands lay unconscious not far away but the other three were trying to squeeze Alasdair and Gavin onto the bowsprit.
